IceCube is a cubic kilometer neutrino telescope, located at the South Pole, capable of observing neutrino interactions across a very large energy range. At the highest energies, IceCube has established the existence of an astrophysical neutrino flux and has observed first indications of its origin. Towards the low-energy side, the DeepCore subarray has now collected the largest sample of atmospheric neutrinos ever recorded, using them to study neutrino oscillations in appearance and disappearance modes, sterile neutrinos and non-standard interactions. A major detector upgrade is being planned that will greatly improve the performance and potential of the experiment across all energies. The UofA is actively involved in DeepCore and upgrade activities.

Search for matter/antimatter equivalency with SNO+

SNO+ aims to establish the Majorana nature of the neutrino by searching for neutrinoless double beta decay using tellurium in liquid scintillator. SNO+ started taking data in 2017 with ultra-pure water, and now the inner volume is being filled with liquid scintillator. Data taken in the current period will be used to study solar, reactor and geo-neutrinos, and will be crucial in understanding the intrinsic background levels of the scintillator. The next phase will begin in 2019 as tellurium is loaded into the detector. The UofA is largely involved in the preparation towards this phase via calibration and development of analysis techniques.

2019 - Multiple undergraduate projects in:

Particle identification and reconstruction techniques in IceCube

Background suppression methods for SNO+

Modeling of atmospheric neutrinos with external constraints

Machine learning and multivariate analyses techniques in large scale detectors

For details or additional information on the research projects, send me an email.